ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with issues of rural social and economic deprivation and then with specific aspects of structural and functional planning. The social and economic problems of rural areas have for long occupied the attention of planners in Ireland, particularly in the Republic where employment opportunities outside agriculture have traditionally been fewer than in Northern Ireland. A number of studies have documented the geographical distribution of deprivation thereby providing insights into the interrelationships between various social and economic dimensions of rural life and also permitting areas of need to be identified with some precision. Distance from urban centres which might have functioned as sources of alternative employment also resulted in permanent migration rather than commuting from remote rural areas. In the Republic of Ireland, provision has been made for the regulation of the physical development of rural areas since the early 1960s under the terms of the Planning and Development Acts of 1963, 1976 and 1982.
